It was 2004 and I was ready to figure out my calling in life. I knew I wanted to be in some area of medicine, but how does one choose which area? I decided to go to overseas and do some volunteer work. There I would get some exposure to a variety of areas of medicine and hopefully I would be able to narrow it down.

I made a spontaneous decision. I traveled to Uganda with an organization called Friends of Mengo to do the groundwork for a study on how selenium supplements affect the quality of life in AIDs patients. This turned into an incredible 6 month adventure. I was given the opportunity to sit in on many surgeries, work with TB patients, do home visits to AIDs patients, and work in an orphanage with several infants as well as toddlers. It was at Sanyu Babies Home where I discovered my maternal instinct. I had no experience with newborns before this trip, and there was a couple of days where I was alone in the nursery feeding and changing 5 babies under 3 months. I quickly learned how to help care for these babies, and grew very attached to many of them.

At Sanyu Babies home in Uganda 2004

I traveled to Kitgum in northern Uganda. Here, I had the honour of shadowing in a maternity ward at St. Joseph’s Hospital. I participated in rounds with the Dr.s and deliveries with the midwives. I was given the opportunity of checking dilation, starting IV’s, and participating in many other medical tasks that helped me to gain a great deal of background knowledge about the process of birth, the physical changes and possibilities in the birthing mother’s body, and a tangible understanding of the changes that occur throughout labour. I watched women labour with such strength, and I saw the ways in which they coped and moved through the intensity.

I was in awe when I saw my first birth. I was amazed at the abilities a woman’s body has to accommodate another being both in pregnancy and in childbirth. I knew then that working with labouring women was my calling.

When I returned to Canada I started a Bio-Psych degree with the goal of going to med school, and I began researching ways to get involved in childbirth. I discovered the role of a doula, and I was fascinated. After much reading and studying, I began my work as a doula. I volunteered at a few births where I gained experience in the emotional and physical support techniques by learning from midwives and nurses.

In June of 2006 I became pregnant with my own son.  I chose midwifery care and a doula for my birth. Without the support of my midwives Lorna McRae, and (then student midwife) Leah Seibert, and my doula Chelsea Lafrance – I know that I would not have succeeded in having a vaginal birth of a 9lb 6 oz. posterior, asynclitic baby. I gave birth in the hospital with obstetricians and pediatricians present, and I saw how well the midwives and the hospital staff worked together with my doula.  It has now become my longterm goal to attend the midwifery program, and my interim goal to offer my extensive knowledge, experience, and expertise to help families to achieve their own unique goals in the birthing process. I work well with doctors and midwives, and I am experienced in home births as well as hospital births.

I am here to provide resources and information, choices and solutions, tools and techniques. I am available for your emotional and physical needs, to gently guide partners and loved ones in supporting the labouring mom, and to help you achieve a positive journey.  It is my role and my joy to empower you in the birth experience, and ultimately as parents.

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